‘Development of education will stem capital flight’

Education world over have been recognised as the best legacy for every nation to have achieve a sturdy, virile and steady future

However, when one considers the amount of foreign exchange being lost to oversea institutions through the mass migration of Nigerian students abroad, it paints a bleak picture for future of education in Nigeria as a country, especially if nothing is immediately done to stem the tide.

It is to this end that experts in the educational sector have called for the total overhaul of the educational system in Nigeria in order to save the excess foreign exchange.

In a survey carried out by BusinessDay, several professionals and academia believe that such a feat is achievable only if the relevant government agencies change their apathy towards the development of education and foster an environment where superior and reasonable ideas prevail over hasty judgment.

Onyekachi Nwosu, an education consultant affirms that a way to control foreign exchange is to actually reduce the number of students that go overseas for studies noting that those studies they go abroad to do can be done locally, regretting that it’s a shame the country’s educational institutions lack the infrastructure, materials and relevant IT of which we need to collaborate with overseas universities.

According to him, “all this can only be possible in an environment of trust, Foreign universities feel very comfortable going to Botswana, Kenya and Ghana because they feel very comfortable going to those countries. But Nigeria’s security issues and corruption also need to be addressed”.

Nwosu further disclosed that one of the advantages of bringing quality education back to Nigeria is what she calls “applicability issues” because whenever students go abroad to study, issues treated as case studies are usually in foreign context, informing that when the students now come back to the country, you have to think on how you can apply it to suit Nigeria context.

“Those people going abroad to learn will face customisation problem,” he maintained

In addition, he observed that another issue in the Nigeria educational system is the entrepreneurial and employability skills, among students of which the NUC have now added a policy on developing employability and entrepreneurship into Nigerian culture.

Even as he announced that the NUC is fully on board to bring entrepreneurial skills into the society. This he disclosed will start right in schools, colleges and higher institutions as part of curriculum development.

Another expert, Bernard Ezeude , a researcher pointed out that the benefit of local education is that examples used are local business examples because when you go abroad to study, nobody will use case study of African or Nigeria.

In his words, “the problem with Nigeria’s education is that is the orientation of every young person wants to be an employee after graduating rather than being entrepreneur. The biggest problem here is that when people graduate they look for jobs whereas, they can create jobs on their own. These jobs, meanwhile are just staring them in the face; but you can’t exactly blame them because the problems has which to do with our curriculum”.

 

KELECHI EWWUZIE